Pacquiao seeks safeguards vs ‘breach’

FILE PHOTO: Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Manny Pacquiao urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to implement more security measures after a joint congressional oversight committee found “very serious” security breaches in the operations of Comelec’s equipment provider Smartmatic.

“Even if there is only 1 percent of doubt among the people, the Comelec should strive to preserve the integrity of the election. We should do so because it is difficult when there is doubt in the minds of the people,” Pacquiao said on Friday.

The presidential candidate went on: “They (Comelec) should conduct a careful study on what protections to implement in order to prevent syndicates from accessing the machines for the election.”

He made the remarks after Sen. Imee Marcos, chair of the Senate electoral reforms panel, bared the “security breach” in a closed-door Senate hearing with Comelec officials.

The breach allegedly involved a Smartmatic employee who allowed the contents of his laptop be copied by a certain group, which is suspected to be a criminal hacking syndicate.

READ: Lawmakers cite Smartmatic leak; let’s wait for NBI, says Comelec

The National Bureau of Investigation and its Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center are still investigating the alleged security breach.

But presidential aspirant Leody de Guzman and his running mate Walden Bello on Friday dismissed the findings of the oversight panel.

“It’s like what they are trying to show here is that there are plans to cheat them. Perhaps this is only done in reverse?” De Guzman said.

“We should be on guard in these moves by political dynasties and these ‘trapos’ (traditional politicians) in the elections because it is the Filipino people who will suffer from this,” he said.

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